Lambert

Frequently Asked Questions


  • Will Lambert run on my iPod?
    No. The iPod does not has a magnetometer, which is mandatory for Lambert. Lambert will only run on iPhone 3GS and newer and on the iPad (all versions).

  • Will there be a Lambert app for other platforms?
    No, Lambert will only exist for the iPhone and for the iPad. First, because of the high hardware quality and the reliable recordings of the sensors. Secondly, because porting software from iOS to Android, Windows Mobile or other mobile operating systems is not a trivial task. You cannot use the Objective-C programming language (which is beautiful) and the Cocoa framework and thus you have to rewrite almost everything from the scratch. This is far behind the possibilities of a part time programmer as me.

  • If not: are there other apps you can recommand?
    I don't know, but this does not mean that there are none. You have do search yourself. One word of caution: I have seen students in the field, taking measurements with their brand new smartphone and a compass app. Afterwards they recognized that the data are meaningless, simply wrong or ambiguously. Maybe because the app or the device was of poor quality and produced trashy data or simply because of wrong handling. It is therefore very important, that you are absolutely sure that your app works correctly! Try it out, before you go in the field. Compare the measurements with measurements of a conventional compass and use the conventional compass if you have any doubts about the data quality.

  • Why does Lambert uses the notation dip direction / dip angle and not strike / dip angle?
    The notation of the dip direction / dip angle is the only one which really is unambiguously. Strike notations suffer from the fact that very different rules exist that define the relationship between the strike angle and the direction of dip. It is worth to have a look at this discussion. The problem is nicely demonstrated here.

  • What are you doing with the income?
    The University of Kiel, where I am employed, supports the development of Lambert and therefore the income will be used for scientific purposes.